Urban Islands: The Symposium

July 14, 20094 Comments Tagged: architecture, history, studio, symposium, urban, Urban Islands, urbanislands

This evening a symposium was held to finish the first day of Urban Islands 2009. A room of 60 or so students along with a handful of special guests joined together in a room at UTS to start throwing ideas around about their projects on Cockatoo Island. As Thomas Rivard put it "the intent is to put too much into your heads. After all, too much is always just about right".

After a brief introduction the students we split into 5 groups (each with a couple of the special guests to chair) and were posed a question get them discussing different epochs of the Island's history and then present back to the room to facilitate further discussion. Let me briefly run over what each of the groups had to say.

The Geological

The first group had the job of looking at the geological aspects of Cockatoo Island, facing the question "If an Island sits in the middle of the harbour and no-one sees it, does it exist?

They covered all aspects of existence and reality, themselves questioning "Have we landed on the moon"? Maybe the Island exists, maybe it doesn't. Unless we are physically on Cockatoo Island experiencing it, then we have to rely on external evidence to prove its existence.

In fact in this modern world, we have become almost entirely reliant on technology to prove the existence of something. We look at Google maps, or look photos to prove the existence of Cockatoo Island. But how much can we trust technology?

The Colonial

This group was looking at the colonial history of Cockatoo Island and the contrast between the reality of its violence and brutality in comparison to the romanticised, picturesque view of it., Posed the question "Do we need to explode the glorious myths of our past" the decided to switch the emphasis from "exploding" to "exposing".

Various ideas were thrown around, considering the history of the island and the fact that dispossession of the land was as important a part of the history as the colonial use itself. The question was how to expose that, but to let people make their own decisions about what had happened on the island in Colonial times.

Some possible approaches seemed to be related to merely aiming to highlight and present parts of the island to visitors, somehow keeping visitors from impacting on the island themselves while being able to experience it, and the possibility of partnering with Indigenous Australian's to come up with possibilities for the Island.

The Industrial

In looking at the Island's history as a shipyard for warships (jointly productive and destructive) this group was considering this question; "In the ontological celebrity death match, who wins? Tactics or tactility?"

Arguments from both side were heard. The Island is tactical - its is pre-planned, considered and thought out. Through its design and actual use, its entire existence is tactical.

However it is also tactile. The island provides a sensory overload of texture and shape. The huge industrial ruins are cathedrals, monuments to industry and fill us with an artificial longing for what was once there.

At the end of the day, the Island's inception and use may have been tactical, but the tactility is what lasts.

The Post Industrial

Looking at the postmodern Cockatoo Island - a place where the imagery of the past is turned picturesque, this group was seeking to answer the question " Te Ta or Bladerunner; Who owns our future?"

These are two competing, however both somewhat distopian, views of the future. Te Ta envisages a late modernist world, sterile, optimistic and ordered. The world of Bladerunner is dirty, complex, a technological and consumerist distopia.

This group came to the conclusion that there are three wide ways in which the Island could be worked on. The first is to focus on preserving and presenting the history of the Island. Secondly, there is the option to clear the land and start afresh, with a vision of building something clean and pure (Ta Te). The third option is to embrace the existing grunge and nature of the site, and start to add layers of complexity (Bladerunner)

The Future (information age)

This group was facing the question "Provocation or Disambiguation" and their response was a pitch for a new movie.

The year is 2013 and the Island has once again been made off limits to visitors. A group of Danish Backpackers on a ship from Mexico crash into the Island, stranding them on it, and in the process starting a fire that levels everything on the Island. Somehow they survive and plant seeds that they are carrying with them.

The Island starts to become overgrown with flora, a new regrowth. Boats start to return to the Island, but on docking, the flora overtakes them and they are added to the land mass Island. Eventually, through this process, Cockatoo Island becomes attached to the mainland.

With all the groups having presented there was a short general discussion on some ideas that had been brought up so far. The students were encouraged to not treat the Island TOO reverentially in their concepts, having big ideas. It was stated that the natural growth of the Island had finished, and we must now think of it in different ways. Like a tree that has died, it is no longer a living thing, but like wood, is a raw material to be molded into something else. It is time to lose the nostalgia and look ahead.

The students all filed out to get back to work, while the guests grouped together discussing thoughts raised throughout the evening. Tomorrow they all head out to the Island for the first time to see what they are working with.

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